Revelation of the Bible:
If the Bible is word of God, then there must be certain effects which are unique to the bible; these effects would not be made in any other literature, at least not to the extent that they are found there. The first of this is revelations. By revelations is meant God’s showing himself by word and act to his people. This self-revelation took place primarily in history: in the lives of patriarchs, in the saving events of exodus, in the history of Israel, the people of God, and finally most fully, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Unity of the Bible:
The Bible was composed over the period of more than one thousand years. The human involved in its composition varied greatly in their background, education, social, and cultural insights, and even, to an extent, in their religious perspective.

How it Came about
Though the Bible may look like any other book on a desk of shelf, it is more like a collection of many different writings by several authors and produced over hundred of years. As in a library, the books of the Bible are not simply stacked one after the another in the order in which they are produced. But they are arranged carefully according to their topic. For instance, Genesis is place because it deals with the creation of the world and man’s early history, and not because it was the first book to written. Revelation is placed last because it deals with the “last things” the end of the world. The final judgment, and the heavenly reign at the end of time.

The Bible comes from the Midst of the community of faith in Order to serve the community of faith.

Earliest Writings:
From the time of Abraham, the Israelites were the people on the move. The nomads of the ancient near east had little room for carrying little scrolls. They carried library in their heads. The Ancient Hebrews, like all people who depend on oral traditions instead of written documents to preserve their history, develop amazingly retentive memories, their story tellers put the saga of their ancestors into poetic rhythms. Their songs of worship were easy to remember because they repeated the same ideas and phrases. For the first five hundred years of their existence as a people, the Israelites shared their history and passed along their traditions almost exclusively by word of mouth.

It was not until the nation became settled kingdom under David and Solomon that a national written literature began to emerge, even though there are fragments of biblical writings that reach much further back in time.

OLD TESTAMENT CANON
The various writings collected to form the OLD Testament grew out for a long period and varied development. None of the authors thought of themselves as composing divinely inspired literature which would be used as guide by succeeding generations. The prophets understood their spoken utterances as coming form God, but the written record of prophecy came only gradually to share such authority.

The first step in the canonizing process as the finding for the Deuteronomic code in the temple in 621 B.C. Because it was though to be written by Moses, this book became the unquestioned word from God to guide king Josiah’s reform. For the first time as a Writing was officially recognized as the word of God. Over the next two hundred years other writings expanded the “ Law given through Moses,” including the narrative accounts of Israel’s origin. By 400 B.C. the different strands of Material had become the five books of the Pentateuch, which was published at this time as the “Torah,” or Law, and very soon as accepted as word of God.

NEW TESTAMENT:

The formation of body of Christian writings into what we revere as The NEW TESTAMENT was a process comparable to the development of OLD TESTAMENT. Jesus left no written records. His Bible and that quoted by his disciples was the Old Testament. The first complete Christian documents dates from twenty years after this time. 1 Thessalonians; and it was another fifteen years or years before a gospel (mark) appeared. The New Testament literature, like that of Old Testament, emerged within they community of believers according to their own needs and the guidance of spirits and they reflect on and responded to the drama of Salvation Christ.

Paul:
The first unified Christian writings to come down to us are the letters, or epistles, of Paul. They are attempt to bridge the distances as the apostles traveled from community to community in Asia Minor and Greece.

Gospels:
As Paul came to the end of his career, another development was underway which would produce the most distinctively Christians document of the NEW TESTAMENTS, the four gospels. Because they are place first in order among New Testament books in our bibles and because the tell the story of Jesus, we tend to think the gospels were the first Christian documents written. As we have seen, Paul’s letters were first Christian Writings. In Fact, Paul himself probably died before the first gospel was in circulation.

Mark:
The Gospel of Mark appeared on the scene around A.D. 65 just about the time that the great leaders, Peter and Paul were Martyr. It is difficult to us to appreciate the achievement the writings of the first gospel represents. Mark has to compose something for new Christians and for prospective converts that would tell the basic story, but not too lengthy or heavy for the interested reader. By it’s time the information about Jesus life and his teaching was complicated by inaccuracy and rumors. Theories of the moaning of God’s saving act in Jesus needed to sorted out and evaluated. As far as we know, Mark was the first writer of life of Jesus, so he could not compare his work with that of the others.

Luke and Act:
At about same time that Matthew wrote his gospel, but independently of Matthew, a Greek Christian convert of Asia Minor composed a tow –volume work that would extend the story of Jesus into the story of early church. The Gospel Luke and Acts of Apostles were directed the Greek-speaking communities of the Roman Empire. Their concerns and needs were different from those of the Jewish converts of Matthew community. Lakes readers did not need reassurance about the Old Testament. But they need to know their own Christian faith, which had come to them through missionary preacher’s was based on the word’s and deeds of Jesus. They probably wondered about the Jewish traditions of the liturgy and asked about the Jewish origins of their faith. They would have been interested in knowing how a Jewish religion had become open to all people.

John:
There is a strong feeling that the apostle John eventually went to Ephesus in Asia Minor with Mary, the mother of Jesus. There the Christian community centered around John and the mother of Jesus. He and his disciples had to counter false teachings that Jesus had not really become man. These false teachers said that Jesus only seemed to be human. But he had actually kept himself free from earthly contamination. The three epistles of John counteract these errors. One of them is beautiful essay on the Love of God revealed in Jesus (1jn); the other two seems to be the letter to local communities written on some particular occasions.
The Gospel of John was last of the four Gospels. It appeared about A.D. 90 It seem to have been work over and reedited by John community by over a period of several years. There is practically no repetition (except in passion account) of material covered in earlier gospels. Jesus is presented as the word who became flesh (john 1,14) who gives himself to followers as the “bread of life” (john 6.35)

Revelations

Revelations:
The last book in the bible is in the category by itself. It is known as the revelation, or the apocalypse. The apocalyptic form of writings was used in OLD TESTAMENT. In books such us Ezekiel and Daniel. It is a very popular form in 200 B.C. to A.D. it was crisis literature: that is, it is written to strengthen the faith and hope of community in the midst of persecution and sufferings. The occasion for Daniel was the persecution of the Jewish community by Antiochus IV; fro revelation, it was the roman persecution of Christian community.

New Testament Canon;
Compared to the long process of the canonization of the OLD TESTAMENT Books, acceptance of the writings of the apostles and gospel writers as inspired scripture came rather quickly. Reference to New Testament books as the Standard for faith and practice are found in writing as early by clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch at the Beginning of the second century.

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